One prior colorant is based on a natural silicate known as mica combined with titanium dioxide. This creates a range of colors with metallic sheen, from silver to gold. Titanium dioxide coated mica powder (herein referred to as “colored mica”) is easy to apply and is widely used for various food applications (e.g. the coating of jelly beans, gums, the decoration of chocolate, biscuits, ice-cream and beverages). Colored mica can be mixed with various liquids to create a shiny and shimmering finish to the liquid. This gives the beverage a distinctive look and creates great consumer appeal visually. However, colored mica contaminates the beverage process and bottle filling equipment as it is extremely difficult or impossible to remove. There are various existing attempts at solutions to try and overcome this problem which will be discussed below. However, none of the existing attempts have proven satisfactory as all have disadvantages that render them unsatisfactory.
One prior attempt at a solution is to use dedicated production equipment for liquids requiring colored mica and separate equipment for liquids that do not require colored mica. This avoids cross-product contamination due to residual suspended solids from beverages with colored mica. However, this requires additional equipment at an economically unfeasible cost. This also greatly underutilizes the equipment for both processes.
Another prior approach requires aggressive, invasive and expensive cleaning of production equipment between products that require colored mica and those that do not. However, this adds to cost and time to disassemble, clean and/or replace components such as seals and gaskets in processing and bottle filling equipment that have been contaminated.
Some manufacturers add mixture modifiers such as gum or sugar to hold the solid particles in suspension for bottle filling. This may eliminate some of the difficulty of cleaning the equipment since residual solids would be prevented from settling in the equipment. However, the addition of solution modifiers creates sanitation issues due to potential pests and microbes and may also create a less temperature-stable mixture. Furthermore, there is an additional cost involved in cleaning and operational complexity in removing these modifiers from the equipment. Further, once material like colored mica is introduced into a filling system, it is virtually impossible to remove.
Another attempt at a solution is to use recirculating filling systems that maintain fluid velocities at all times to prevent colored mica from settling in the equipment. However, these systems are expensive. Additionally, these systems may stop unexpectedly (e.g. due to power losses) that leads to colored mica settling and contaminating the process equipment.
Therefore, there is a pressing need for a system and method for addition of materials that are difficult to clean and/or clear from a filling system. The present system and method solves these problems with a micro dosing system and method. One of the advantages of micro dosing is to avoid the contamination of a primary filling or supply system.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.